The Rotary Club of St Marylebone is actively involved with local community and international projects.
The charitable projects for which we shall raise funds in the Rotary Year 2022- 2023 are:
Local Projects
Woman's Trust - supporting women to recover from domestic violence
The Club has supported us in various ways. Margaret Pollock worked closely with us
throughout the year meeting with us regularly as well as attending our Annual general meeting in October 2017. The Rotary Club of St. Marylebone supported us financially with a grant of £2,000 to support 6 women through a course of up to 18 sessions of counselling with one of our specialist counsellors. The club raised further funds for us at the Presidents Dinner in June through a silent auction.
Heidi Riedel CEO Woman’s Trust
The West London Mission - Seymour Centre
The Centre provided a range of drop-in services and supports around 100 homeless people every day. As well as meeting basic needs the Centre works hard to get people off the streets into accommodation, provided professional advice to help homeless people to address their issues and improve the quality of their lives. Other services inckude benefits and employment advice and an on-site Heleless Health Team.
Pimlico Puffins
Pimlico Puffins is a swimming club for those who have learning or physical disability who would like to learn to swim or exercise in the water. All ages, size, shapes and characters come to the club to enjoy the swim. The pool is closed to the public during Puffins sessions so that the club members can enjoy the pool in private. Our Rotary Club helps to raise funds
The Orion Orchestra
Providing young musicians the opportunities and mentorship to bridge the gap between music college and their professional careers.
International Project
The David Nott Foundation - Established in 2015 to provide training for local medical and nursing teams in conflict and disaster zones throughout the world
The Club generously donated £2,000 to the David Nott Foundation in March 2018. The donation contributed toward a scholarship for a young Palestinian surgeon from the West Bank, Mariam. Mariam attended the Foundation’s Hostile Environment Surgical Training course in Ramallah in March 2017 so it was a great pleasure to be able to support her to come to the UK for further training on the course David Nott directs at the Royal College of Surgeons of England; Surgical Training for Austere Environments.
Eleanor Nott CEO The David Nott Foundation
In addition, we shall honour our Club's obligations to the Rotary Foundation with the "End Polio Now" campaign and other local and national charities.
To raise funds for these projects Members have organised various events, including a sponsored Bike ride by our former Treasurer Noordin Kassam, an 'mile underwater' by our former Secretary Peter Schweiger, luxury dining by Matthew Lawson, a BBQ by Li Ping Bartlett and a classical concert by John Bash.
Prevuious projects include:
LOCAL COMMUNITY
A new minibus for the Portman Early Childhood Centre for socially deprived children in the Church Street Ward of Marylebone
Help for KIDS - a home learning charity for severely disabled children
Assistance in the refurbishment of the top floor of the Almshouses on Crawford Place (London W1)
Westminster Drug Project’s Foundation Aftercare Project: The Club works with the peer mentoring component by setting up a link with peer mentors and the International Students’ House
Support for Corekids, a service for children and parents affected by substance misuse
Support for ‘Starfish’, a training programme for effective and sustainable control of stammering
INTERNATIONAL
The Club micro-financed a group of poor women in a Mexican village, to buy raw materials for a range of artisan products that they manufactured and sold in the markets. The project enabled the women to provide food and shelter for their families.
- The Club has played its part in supporting Rotary’s global flagship campaign to ‘End Polio Now’ by commissioning a local artist to design greeting cards - the proceeds of the cards supports the campaign
- Emergency Aid – the Club joins other Rotary Club around the world in offering life saving support when natural disasters overwhelm people, for example, the recent floods in Pakistan and the earthquake in Haiti
- Educational Scholarships/Study Exchange Programmes – the Club joins Rotary Clubs around the world in promoting the exchange of ‘ambassadorial’ students by supporting them in London and helping them travel overseas.